


Snagging a Bat

by orphan_account



Category: DCU
Genre: Bruce is bad at emotions, Friends to Lovers, M/M, The others think it's hilarious, World's Finest, but they're still tired of Bruce's shit, justice league - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-13 09:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3376244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billionaire vigilante Bruce Wayne and Reporter/superhero Kal-el/Clark Kent have developed a strong, if not strange, friendship. And as time goes on, it is obvious to everyone that their friendship might be headed somewhere more intimate.  But because Bruce is Bruce, and therefore bad at anything resembling feelings, it doesn't seem to be going any further. </p>
<p>But Kal will not be deterred.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snagging a Bat

 

\-----

“Oh, wow! Are those Alfred’s gingersnaps?”

 “Yes, they are. They are also _mine._ ”

 “Come on, I shared Ma’s cake with you last week!”

 “That was your decision. You can’t expect me to base mine off of yours.”

 “Please?”

 “Kal, you are a full grown man. Stop looking like a pouting four-year-old.”

 “Please?”

 “For the love of- fine. Here.”

 

The rest of the Justice League watched in amazement as Batman casually held out a cookie towards Superman. Superman then bit off of the cookie _while Batman was still holding it._ They were fully prepared for Batman to glare the hell out of the Kryptonian, but instead were shocked as he simply stared at the half-eaten cookie for but a millisecond before eating the rest of it. This strange action repeated itself over and over as they conversed; Batman using the Watchtower’s computer, Superman just floating casually off to the side.

 

“Have we stumbled into an alternate universe? Damnit, Jordan, what did you do?”

 “Hey! I didn’t do shit, Queen!”

 “Calm down, Hal.”

 “But Barry-“

 “No, both of you be quiet.”

 “Are we really going to start a debate about alternate dimensions just because Bruce gave Clark a bite of a cookie?”

 “Diana-“

 “What’s going on here?”

 

Everyone fell silent at once. Sometime during their discussion, both Superman and Batman had walked over to the common area as well. Bruce’s cowl was pushed back (as it tended to be nowadays), but the questioning stare he gave them was obviously one of the Dark Knight’s. Everyone gave muttered excuses, and Bruce simply stared for another moment and raised an eyebrow, before pulling on his cowl and turning on his heel towards the teleporter. Superman gave him a clap on the shoulder and got a small grunt and a wave of the hand in return. It was but a minute until the Watchtower announced his departure.

 

Clark gave a small snort (obviously there was some sort of joke between those two, because nothing had happened that was remotely funny), and began to pour himself a cup of coffee. It wasn’t until he had taken the first sip out of the mug that Oliver chose to ask:

 

“So when did you and the Bat get together?”

 

He couldn’t have timed it better if he tried. Clark immediately spat out the coffee in an extremely comical way, spraying the table (and everyone near him). His face was bright red, and he was choking on what appeared to be air. Diana hurried to pat him on the back, although it didn’t seem to have any effect. Oliver and Hal were both laughing so hard that they were falling out of their seats, with both Barry and J’onn looking at them with distaste. Shiera simply smirked and continued polishing her mace. Once he calmed down enough, Clark looked up and replied (although it was a bit… _higher pitched_ …than usual).

 

“We’re not…how did you…what gave you that idea?”

 

Oliver collected himself enough to answer, pulling himself back upright.

 

“You were acting just as sickeningly sweet as Hal and Barry when they first got together.”

 “Hey!”

 “Excuse me?”

 “Don’t even play dumb. Sharing food, holding hands, kisses on cheeks, petting hair and little hugs? You guys damn near gave us all cavities. Still act that way now, in fact.”

 “He’s right, you two. It _was_ pretty cute.”

 “You too, Shiera?”

 “Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies.”

 “But we didn’t-“

 

The four of them continued to bicker, leaving Clark confused and somewhat embarrassed. Diana just looked at him in an understanding way.

 

“You may not be partners, but you _do_ have romantic feelings towards him. Am I wrong?”

 “*sigh* No. I just…don’t know what to do. It took me so long to reach the point where he could trust me. _So long._ I don’t want to destroy the fragile thing we have. But I just can’t help but imagine…”

 

He had been imagining. He only dared to do it at night, when no one could read what was on his face, and _especially_ not near Bruce. But even if he shoved the conscious thoughts away, it wouldn’t help much because soon not even his _dreams_ were safe. He didn’t know if it was his own sexual frustration, Bruce’s naturally handsome looks, or some strange mixture of the two, but the dreams that came out of it were rather embarrassing _._ He both loved and despised them.

 

“Well, if you don’t want to just drop it on him…maybe you could ease him into it?”

“What do you mean?”

 “You could make him come to the conclusion himself.”

 “Are you saying I should try and _court Batman?”_

“Yes. You should.”

 “Well, I suppose it couldn’t hurt.”

\------

 

Clark sat in his chair at his desk, tapping is pencil absent-mindedly. Courting. How do you _court_ someone? Flowers? Candy? Are there a different set of rules for men? Are you even supposed to _do that_ for men? Are there instructions somewhere that he didn’t know about?

 

He thunked his head on the desk. He had been thinking about this for the last three days. It had been almost impossible to talk to Bruce, because he was tempted to just open his mouth and ask him how he wanted to be courted. _Courted._ What kind of word was that-

 

“Smallville!”

 “Huh? Yes, Lois?”

 “I have been standing here for almost a minute calling your name. What’s the deal?”

 “Nothing. I’ve just been worrying about that deadline that’s coming up.”

 “You mean the one that’s due next week?”

 “Uh…yes.”

 “You’re lying to me, Kent. Why are you lying to me?”

 

He inwardly cringed. Could he not catch a break? Why did all the women in his life have such good intuition?

 

“You caught me, Lois. I’m actually trying to find out how to court someone.”

 “Really? First of all, courting is from around five-thousand years ago. You don’t _court_ anymore. You woo, or flirt, or seduce-“

 “Lois.”

 “I’m serious, Smallville. If you want to even be considered, you need to use the right lingo. Modernize.”

 “Fine. Tell me your modern ways, then.”

\-----

 

He couldn’t do it.

 

How did people do this on a regular basis?

 

Lois had given him simple instructions. He had been relieved that it sounded so simple, but now he knew why people had such a hard time. His confidence was shot to hell, and that was bad, because that’s something Lois said he needed. Compliments. Compliments were simple. ‘I like ____ about you. When you _____ it makes my day.’ He gave them to his Ma all the time. But that was his _Ma._ She didn’t care if he sounded dorky. She had raised him through the dorkiest time of his life. _Bruce,_ on the other hand; graceful, elegant Bruce. He couldn’t make a fool out of himself in front of Bruce. And it wasn’t because there wasn’t anything to compliment him on. There was plenty. But putting those words into a sentence and vocalizing them in a way that didn’t sound completely absurd to a rather cynical person made it very hard to do.

 

“What am I supposed to say? Everything sounds ridiculous. Bruce, I like your eyes. They’re very pretty eyes. A beautiful cobalt blue.”

 “Thank you, I suppose.”

 

He froze in absolute horror. Did he imagine that voice? Please for the love if all that is sweet and holy let him have imagined that voice-

 

“Kal?”

 

Damn. He turned slowly to face him, and instead of a cynical eyebrow or a nasty sneer, he saw a small, almost miniscule smile. You had to have recognized every inch of his face to see it though. Almost as quick as it came it was gone, and Bruce strode towards the computer. He was about to fly out of here and attempt to suffocate himself with a pillow when he heard it; so quiet, that if you didn’t have enhanced hearing you probably wouldn’t have even noticed it.

 

“I like your eyes too.”

 

He spent the rest of the night with a smile.

\-----

 

They were fighting against a small army of robots (thanks, Toy Man) this time around. It was the middle of the night, and they had all been roused from sleep (except for Bruce. Bruce rarely slept) to fight them. It was cold, wet, and muddy. Obviously this attack was supposed to be a nuisance instead of a legitimate threat, because all of the robots were toy-sized.

 

But, pardon his language, there were _thousands of the fuckers._

 

They were like a swarm of locusts. For every group that they destroyed, more popped up to take their place. All of them were well and truly agitated now. Shiera had lost all semblance of tactic and was now just trying to beat them into submission, Diana had begun breaking them in midair once they had gone airborne, Hal and Barry were working together to enclose most of them in a green energy bubble, and the small explosions from behind him were most likely Bruce. He grunted as a group of them latched onto his face. His heat vision had destroyed them, but it had also destroyed some of the national park they were in.

 

 A cry of outrage had him circling around in an instant. Apparently the toy-men had discovered the power of teamwork, and had enclosed Wonder Woman in some sort of twisted hug. She struggled violently, and broke free, scattering the robots everywhere. But of course, another wave showed up to replace the damaged ones.

 

“Where are all of these things coming from?”

 “They’re the same robots.”

 “What?”

 “I planted a tracker on one of them a while ago. It came back. They’re the same robots, they’re just fixing themselves. I assume if we destroy them beyond repair, they’ll stop.”

 “Well, Hawkgirl is already onboard with that plan.”

 “She is getting quite violent.”

 “So what do we…do..?”

 

And of course Batman had already grappled away somewhere. He always did. After a bit of searching he found him on one of the top branches in an enormous tree. He wasn’t really going to…

 

“Batman! _NO_!”

 

And it was too late. He had already jumped from the branch, twin bat-bombs in hand. After a slight free-fall, he threw them with all of his might towards the mass of robots. The other JL members had ran and ducked for cover, but Batman had been caught directly in the blast. While the robots had been decimated, the force of the explosion had sent him flying. To anyone else, his cool, calm demeanor in the face of danger would have calmed their worries. But his ears had registered that small increase in his heart rate, the one thing that gave away the fact that Batman knew what was going to happen. Frantic, he swooped over to where he had lost saw him, praying that he wasn’t too badly injured. His prayers were answered when he saw him attempting to sit up.

 

He noticed him approaching and managed to sit himself up fully.

 

"You turned yourself into a _bomb,_ Bruce? Really?"

 “I expected my landing to be much softer. But the explosion burned through my grappling cable. I shouldn’t have procrastinated on those modifications. And why did I even bring this one, I knew it was worn out-“

 

He couldn’t help but be relieved. He was so relieved, in fact, that he fell to his knees and dragged Bruce into a hug. Bruce went quiet and still, and it took a moment to figure out why. But when he did, he felt his stomach drop to his ankles. He was _hugging_ Bruce. Not a one-shouldered ‘we did it’ best-friend hug, but a full blown ‘I love you and I’m so happy you’re alright’ hug. He retracted his arms before Batman could try to break them, and started stammering apologies. Bruce simply got up, wiped off some of the mud, and replaced his cable with a fresh one. Before he vanished back into the shadows, though, he gave a cryptic, muttered:

 

“It’s alright. It’s…”

 

Before rushing off into the shadows. Superman just turned towards the other members, who were picking themselves up, wiping themselves off, and heading home; he pretended that his heart wasn’t breaking into small pieces.

\------

 

He was in his private quarters in the Watchtower when someone knocked on the door. He had opened it, and the second after had something thrown at him, before the door shut and the lights went out. He looked around in confusion. What was going on? And what was he carrying? Whatever it was it was large, and…moving? What on earth-

 

He was holding Bruce.

 

An angry, tied-up Bruce to be exact.

 

Bruce gave him a look of pure ‘what are you waiting for?’ that caused him to remember the ‘tied-up’ portion. He super-sped him out of his bonds, and watched as Bruce stalked to the door.

 

“Barry Allen! I know you can hear me. When I get out of this room you won’t have to worry about the speed force because I’ll murder you myself!”

 

He looked furious, and was about to punch the door when he caught his elbow.

 

“That won’t get you out of here. What happened that brought you in here?”

 “The Flash ambushed me while I was working, tied me up, and brought me here. I don’t suppose you could force us out of here, could you?”

 “Bruce, you designed this place like a fortress. Not even I can break through one of these doors. I tested it, remember?”

 “I know. It’s just…I can’t believe they really went through with it.”

 “Went through with what? Throwing you into my room? What would that accomplish?”

 

He got that blank look that he gave whenever he didn’t want to give details. For some reason, that look infuriated him right now. The days of worrying that he wasted, the rejected hug, the blank stare, all of it made him see red, and he had to make sure that his heat vision stayed under control.

 

“No. No. _No._ You will not give me that look right now, Bruce. You have been tossed into my room, into _my arms,_ and I would like to know why.”

 “I don’t want to do this, Clark.”

 “Tough nuts. Explain.”

 “No.”

 “Yes.”

 “ _No.”_

_“_ _Yes.”_

_“Why do you want to know?”_

_“Why do you not want me to?”_

Sometime between all of this they had gotten into each other’s faces. Once the adrenaline had run out of the argument, they both registered the fact that they were so close their noses were almost touching. For some reason, Bruce didn’t move away, so neither did Clark. He spoke in a soft voice, barely a whisper.

“Do you really want to know that bad?”

 

His reply was equally soft.

 

“I think I already do.”

 

And then their lips met.

\-----

 

EXTRA:

 

“How do you think it’s going?”

“It seems quiet.”

 “Is that a good thing, Diana?”

 “I’m fairly sure.”

 “Batman is going to murder me.”

 “Probably.”

 “Shiera, why did I listen to you?”

 “Because you had no choice?”

 “Haaall…You should sacrifice yourself to save me.”

 “I don’t think so.”

 “Some boyfriend you are. Turn the damn lights back on.”

 

He threw the switch, and the lights came back on throughout the floor. He was lucky; the level he was on was nowhere near the level Batman was on. Poor Barry.

 

After a few seconds passed and no one came out, Diana decided to open the door just a slight. And boy did she get an eyeful. Clark and Bruce had somehow wound up on the floor, with Clark sitting and Bruce straddling him. Clark’s hands were firmly planted on Bruce’s waist, and Bruce had his fingers tangled in the hairs on the back of Clark’s neck. They were kissing as though they were trying to fight for shared oxygen. It wasn’t until Clark’s hands drifted lower and Bruce let out a cross between a whine and a moan that Diana firmly shut the door again.

 

Oliver and Shiera looked at her face and smirked, while Barry tilted his head in confusion.

 

“Well? Are they alright?”

 

She gave him a small smirk.

 

“They’re going to be just fine. Just give them a while.”

\-----

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
